The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for storing, suctioning, mixing, and discharging variable volumes of combined phases of gases, liquified gases, solids, or liquids for such uses as a neutralizer, extinguisher, and conveyor.
Cold storage warehouses used by the food industry are commonly chilled using ammonia as a refrigerant. This ammonia source, however, may accidentally leak from valve stems, ruptured supply lines, pump seals, etc., thereby permitting the ammonia vapor to penetrate the food cartons. Moreover, such ammonia gases or droplets present in the air in the warehouse are hazardous to humans. Such leaks are conventionally neutralized by applying liquid, gaseous, or solid carbon dioxide to form ammonium carbamate or ammonium carbonate compounds. Gaseous or liquid carbon dioxide is conventionally discharged randomly from storage cylinders. Solid blocks or pellets of carbon dioxide, more commonly known as dry ice, may also be placed within the contaminated room, and a vapor phase allowed to form.
However, considerable difficulty is created by insufficient contact between the carbon dioxide molecules and the ambient ammonia molecules. This phenomenon is caused partially by the natural separation of the heavier-than-air carbon dioxide and the lighter-than-air ammonia. Moreover, only limited directional control or mixing may be achieved by opening a cylinder valve or randomly placing solid carbon dioxide in a room.
Industries storing or using flammable liquids frequently encounter problems with ignited streams of the liquid. Conventional fire extinguishants comprise liquids randomly discharged under pressure from cylinders, which react with the flammable liquid to form an extinguishing blanket which deprives the fire of the oxygen necessary to feed it. But inefficiencies arise where a stream of extinguishant is added to a moving inflamed stream due to inadequate surface contact between the molecules.
Still other industries such as the poultry industry make use of pellets of carbon dioxide as a refrigerant, such as in climate-cooled railroad cars. Such pellets are conventionally loaded by manual labor using a shovel, which is extremely inefficient.
Venturi or eductor-type devices are known in the art, which use compressed air as a driving force to suction and propel air or some other material feed. An example of such a device is an "air amplifier" sold by Vortec, Inc.